


I Love You, I Love Your Smile

by Kairi_Ruka



Category: The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Broken english, Fluff and Humor, Idiots in Love, M/M, Not Beta Read, Out of Character, POV First Person, Pining, Rare Pairings, Self-Indulgent, Short & Sweet, The Waystation (Percy Jackson)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25756342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kairi_Ruka/pseuds/Kairi_Ruka
Summary: "You should smile more often," I finally complained, dishes completely forgotten. Lit's smile widened just a fraction, and my heart flipped when I smiled back."Then you should be near me more often," he pointed out smoothly, and I was torn between blushing and laughing.
Relationships: Apollo & Meg McCaffrey, Apollo/Lityerses (Percy Jackson), Calypso/Leo Valdez, Hemithea | Emmie/Josephine "Jo"
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35





	I Love You, I Love Your Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Trials of Apollo belongs to Rick Riordan, this fic is mine along with all the mistakes
> 
> Out of character, you've been warned

_Yo, my so-called friends_   
_Stop meddling with my love life_   
_Y'all embarrassing_

⇝♡⇜

"Hey, Lester, look! There he is!" Leo pointed rudely at another student a bit far away from our position, who was standing (or, since I am eloquent, _sulking_ ) under a shady tree.

I groaned. "Valdez, can you not point him out while I'm trying to keep my cool?" I asked, then realized what he had just called me with and added with annoyance, "and stop calling me Lester!"

Leo Valdez, my teeny tiny shorty _friend_ (mind you, I use this word because I'm actually not sure what to call him with) scoffed. "Dude, that's literally your middle name!" he said.

"Yes," I agreed begrudgingly, "but that's against my choice! And it sounds dorky!"

"Since when you aren't?"

This kid, I swear. If I was not trying to really keep my composure inside and not blush at the sight of my crush, I would have wrestle him to the ground and declare war. Dramatic? Absolutely. I'm a major drama student after all.

"I'm never 'dorky'!" I said indignantly, with an air quote for dramatic effect. "It's not even a real word!"

Leo shrugged. "Who cares, though? It describes you perfectly," he replied. "Oh, and just to annoy you further today," he added, nodding to where the subject of our derailed conversation was standing, "he looks very _lit_."

"Stop it!" I cried. "You make the worst puns ever!"

The scrawny midget had the audacity to laugh. "Yeah? Not any worse than your haikus!" he quickly retaliated. I gasped dramatically. He did _not_ just insult my haiku-writing skill! I lunged for his neck, but another arm seemingly came out of nowhere gripped my wrist.

Leo cheered at his girlfriend. "Thanks, babe. I mean, I _can_ dodge his puny attack easily, but your help is still appreciated," he said with a wink. I smacked him upside the head with my other hand and he smacked me back, although (ha!) because of his limited height, he only managed to hit my shoulder.

"You're welcome," Calypso replied, a little sarcastically, before releasing my hand. "What are you two arguing about anyway? It's only mid-afternoon, stop polluting the air."

"You're so mean," Leo commented jokingly, hands crossing in front of his chest. "And to answer your question, well…."

I glared at him as a warning. "Don't," I said, although from all of our previous argument, I was pretty sure he would not follow my warning. But hey, a guy could hope.

"... you know, just the usual bisexual panic over here," the elfish boy continued, grinning all the way. And there went my hope. Oh well, I already knew I should have just gag him anyway and spare the world from his -- and pardon my language -- bullshit. Just my luck I didn't bring anything that could work as a gag.

Calypso massaged her temple and sighed. "I don't know whether to be mad at you for continuing to pester Apollo, or at Apollo for not even making a single move yet," she grumbled loudly in exasperation. "Or maybe I can just be mad at both of you."

"Whoa, hey, no. Just mad at him, okay? He deserves it more than me for his illogical pining after Lit!" Leo yelped and pointed at me.

"The only things I deserve is rest and less depression," I argued with a very valid point, "and curse you, I'm not pining after anyone."

He gave me an unimpressed stare. "Now even _you_ know that's weak, Lester. You can't lie for your own life," he chastised, which, how dare he! As if he was better than me at lying! But as I considered it, he did success at hiding his insecurities on his first few semesters so maybe he was not that bad.

"And it's not like you're pining after a stranger either. I mean, you two are friends already, so no awkward-awkward moments like, 'who's your name?' or 'yeah we're in the same English class haha' or something like that," Leo continued, raising an eyebrow at me.

"Your speech pattern is astoundingly mindblowing and not in a positive way," I retorted. "And stop talking about us- him- this already!"

Calypso's eyes widened a fraction and she seemed more amused than annoyed at my words. "You jinxed yourself with stuttering like that. Now Leo will never shut up until you ask him out," she commented.

"I would never shut up in the first place anyway," Leo said. "I mean, gods, just ask him out already. Almost everyone in the Waystation placed a bet, and I don't want Meg to be the winner."

My brain stuttered and I stared at him in disbelief, while Calypso groaned and rubbed her face. "Wait- what is this bet all about? Why isn't anyone tell me about this?!"

Calypso shot me an unimpressed glare. "We are betting on you, Apollo. Why would we ever tell you about it?" at that, she redirected her glare to her boyfriend, who laughed sheepishly and scratched his neck.

"Who's in on this?" I egged on. Seriously? To the point where everyone placed a _bet_? Didn't they have another things to tend to? Sure, being paid attention to is nice, but this is humiliating!

Leo glanced at Calypso to make sure she wouldn't smite him on the spot before shrugged. "As I said, almost everyone. Emmie doesn't want to be included though, even after Jo tried to rope her into this. And there's Meg, of course. She's pretty sure she will win, that little grasshopper. Then there is Georgie, Hunter, Thalia, Jimmy and Sssssara. Of course, Calypso and I also placed a bet sooo … basically everyone in Waystation and a few friends except for you and Lit," he explained.

I face-palmed and sighed. Why did I have friends like them anyway? Oh, right, because my father had casted me out of his house and the people in the Waystation were the only ones that could relate to things like that. I was very grateful for their help but still, sometimes I had moments where I felt sorry to myself for having friends as crazy as them.

Speaking of Waystation, my thought drifted back to Lit. His name was Lityerses, but we only call him with his full name when we seriously wanted his attention. For daily use, we just call him Lit. Simple and easy. Leo in particular liked to make puns out of my first name Apollo, which is the Greek God of Sun with Lit's name since it was … well, _lit_. I liked the puns, no matter how bad they were -- though I would rather eat Hermes' shoes than to say that to him.

"So who bets for what?" I asked, couldn't really suppress my curiosity. "And what are the deals?"

Leo laughed and patted my back annoyingly. "Man, Lester, if you really think I'd tell you that, than you're even slower than you actually are," he replied, pretending to be sad.

"I'm not slow!" I protested, scowling.

"Whatever makes you have a nice dream, Lester -- oh right, it's Lit!"

I smacked his head once more just for good measure. Calypso was watching our squabble with exhausted interest and even after our slight rivalry at the start of our friendship, I found myself quite sympathized with her. Dealing with your crazy mates is not easy, trust me.

"C'mon, Leo, stop bothering him," she piped in. "And your class is in that direction."

"Yeah, yeah, alright. See ya later, ladies and Papadopoulos," the boy said, swerving away from Calypso and I with a tipping hat gesture before turned his back around and started to run to his class. His girlfriend sighed and shook her head exasperatedly.

"One of these days I will hide all of his bolts in my brother's shoes," I mumbled.

"Which brother?" Calypso asked which, fair enough, considering who my father was.

I still rolled my eyes, though. "The only brothers I have _ever_ appreciate to live are Jason and Hermes, Calypso. And I would never hide Leo's bolt stash in Jason's shoes," I pointed out.

"Fair enough. Anyway, that's my class. See you later?"

"To be your third-wheel?" I asked wearily. I had given that job _multiple times_ and I never liked it. Maybe you're confused as why those multiple times could happen if I didn't like the job. Well … let's just say both Leo and Calypso could be annoyingly persuasive if they wanted to.

The brunette laughed lightly. "If you want to. But I hope it can be a double date?"

"Please stop."

She laughed once more before waving and parted from me. I kept walking and tried to act like I didn't see Lit when I passed the tree he was standing under. Oh, how I hate to write here that the key word was being 'try'.

"Hey," he said as he stepped out of the shadow and walked on my side, hands shoved into his pants pockets. There was rumor that Lit always brought a knife everywhere and no one ever known where he hid it. Well, safe to say that the rumor is true, but the people in Waystation and I never made a lot of fuss about it. Emmie once said that if he felt safe by bringing knife, then let him bring it, as long as he doesn't recklessly cut people's throats.

"Um, hi," I replied cleverly. His scars looked translucent under the stream of sunlight and they made his already dark eyes looked even darker. Which of course _didn't_ do any single weird thing to my heart and knees. Of course not. Why would they?

"Are you coming to the Waystation today?" Lit asked, glancing at me with his usual side-eye glance. After weeks knowing him, I knew he wasn't being dismissive everytime he glance at people like that. He just hadn't used to make small, light talk and only stare at people dead-on when he went into fights.

I blinked. "Well, yes," I answered. "I promised Meg I'll come to help her with her piano lesson and Georgie said she has a new drawing she wants to show me. Are you?"

"Am I what? Have a drawing to show you?" Lit replied. I scrunched up my nose in confusion.

"Of course no! I mean-- oh, you're teasing me, aren't you?"

Lit grinned and for the love of gods, no, it _didn't make me fall down like a damsel, gods damnit_! Actually, this time, I really didn't fall to the ground which, yay, improvement.

I huffed out a laugh. "I mean, are you going? To Waystation?"

He scowled and gave me a nod. "Yes. My boss is kind of forcing me to resign temporarily from the job because apparently, working non-stop is unhealthy -- who cares anyway?"

"Well I care," I muttered lowly, frowning at the Lit's mentioned-implied bad sleep schedule. Sadly, I had forgotten that Lit had very keen ears. He perked up.

"You do?" he said, tone half-teasing. "Maybe I should work myself to death so you can care for me more."

It was only a friendly jab, I knew. But I could still feel my blood rushing to my face anyway. _Curses_.

After a few seconds of thoughtful consideration, I settled to reply with, "maybe you should. That way you'll get more sleep. Although given how Leo is practically living at Waystation too, it's probably the best for you to stay alive. Gods know he would draw mustaches on your corpse's faces."

Lit, to my surprise, laughed. He laughed at my idiotic response -- was his sense of humour really that shallow or was I just that funny? But at least he didn't mention how I stupidly ramble about a topic that usually came out of my emo uncle's mouth.

"That's probably for the best," he said finally before turned his head to me with apt interest. "I can't spend time with you if I'm dead anyway."

Smooth, Lit, smooth. Ever since I knew him, I knew that he couldn't flirt for his life. Apparently smooth-talking was an exception.

"Wait, you said you're giving Meg music lessons?" Lit added when I didn't say anything.

I shrugged. "She asked, and I forced to agree so … yes. She's actually not bad for a learner, but I'm slowly going crazy by her commentary," I grumbled the last part, recalling every time Meg complained about the music being sad, or when she didn't want to know what's the meaning of the music because, and I quote, _it would spoil the story_. Seriously, this girl.

"Can you maybe teach me too?" Lit asked with sudden interest as he turned his head a little so I could see three quarters of his face. His question threw me off and I blinked.

"You … want me to teach you music lessons?" I asked back. On the positive note, I would have more alone time with Lit and spend time with my favourite hobby. On the slightly-negative note, teaching both Meg and Lit in the same week would give me even _more_ headache than Artemis could when she lectured me for flirting with her girls-only friend group.

Lit nodded, than seemed to reconsider it. "Not piano, though. I don't want to break expensive things like that. Maybe something smaller?"

I ignored his predicament for a moment to address a very important question. "Why?" I asked, because yes, I am that good with words.

For a moment, he regarded me with a weird look before realizing I was asking why would he want me to teach him music. He shrugged. "To pass the time, I guess. Jo said I need more hobby than just wielding knife or helping Meg with her plants. Also, you're a good company."

"Let me guess, because I'm good-looking?" I joked, remembering our inside joke when Lit was still quite new at the Waystation.

Lit nodded and a ghost of a smile appeared on his face. "Yeah, because we're good-looking. Anyway, it's fine if you're tired or busy though. Gods know Meg and Leo try their hardest to drive you insane and you also have more classes than me, so--"

I quickly jumped in on the opportunity. Yes, I would be more exhausted by the end of the week only, but I had the feeling that it would be worth it.

"No, no! It's fine, I have time. I'd be glad if I successed to make two of you great musicians and you, er…," I faltered for a bit before soldiered on, "you're worth my time anyway, so … yeah." I couldn't help but to feel that that finishing line was lame, but Lit looked more amused than anything.

"Okay, then," he simply replied, then he spared a glance at his watch. "I got to go now, Apollo. I guess we can discuss this more later at the Waystation?"

I nodded. "Sure. And if you find me later with Meg in the music room, _please_ disturb us. You'll save me from early insanity."

Lit smiled crookedly and muttered a 'will do' before took a turn to the left while I went right. After a few steps, I made sure there was no one in surrounding beside me before crouching down and muffle my screaming to my hands. I just realized that maybe, accepting to teach your crush something that you love almost as much as you love them _wasn't_ really a clever idea.

⇝♡⇜

"So, you blindly accepted to teach Lit music?"

"Not blindly, but yes."

"And now you're panicking because you realize being alone together with your crush isn't a great idea especially since you think he likes you as a friend."

"I don't have a cru- okay, fine, I have a crush on him. And yes, that's the gist of it … wait, why did you say 'I think'?"

Calypso sighed forlornly and rubbed her forehead while muttering something in her mother language. Little did she know I understand what she said, and I assure you she _wasn't_ saying anything flattering.

"Well," she finally said, "you agreed to give him the lessons, though. So deal with it."

I pouted. "He looked happy," I said simply and inwardly frowned when I realized how disgustingly sappy that had sounded. Calypso smirked like she was just thinking the same.

She stood up and pat my shoulder in both mocking and assuring gesture. "You'll be fine, Apollo. The worst thing you can do is probably tripping over yourself or stutter when you talk."

"Yes, because that _is_ reassuring," I grumbled.

"Just act like your usual self. Nothing bad will happen, I'm sure. And if anything embarrassing happens anyway, well … Lit already saw enough crazy things in Waystation. He wouldn't be creeped out by anything you do."

"That is not even _remotely_ comforting, Calypso!" I groaned loudly, right before my phone let out a shrill banshee-like shriek that made both of us jumped at least three feet to the air.

"What is- stop that sound!" Calypso yelled as I fumbled for my phone and swiped the alarm off. "Why do you set that as alarm?! That was awful!"

"I didn't!" I exclaimed back, staring in dismay at the device in my hand. "I set up a nice, calm song for alarm. This is _certainly_ not."

Calypso grunted. "Ugh, probably Meg or someone else messing with your phone -- what's the alarm for anyway?"

"Meg's piano lesson, I gotta go," I announced.

"Careful with your steps!" Calypso called out teasingly.

"Don't jinx it!"

⇝♡⇜

Thank the gods above, I did _not_ trip over anything. What I did, though, was jumping a few feet to the air in surprise when the music room door got slammed open. Meg, to her record, just turned her head calmly from her piano meanwhile I tried to calm my racing heart before looking. Lit was standing on the doorway, hand extended and a bewildered expression on his face.

"Sorry," he finally muttered after a few beats. "I don't know the door would be that easy to open."

"It's alright," I assured, although I was spectacularly failing at calming my heart rate. Meg's glance was switching between Lit and I before she shrugged and finished her piece.

"Wait until I finish this first," she said, directing a meaningful sideway glare at me. Well, it looked meaningful, even though I didn't understand what was the meaning behind it at all.

Lit just nodded distractedly and glanced around the room. It was quite spaced, since not all of the people who lived at Waystation liked to play musical instruments. But ever since I came and Meg and Georgina both seemed to take interest on learning, Emmie gave us permission to use an empty room that, according to her, used to be the old dining room before the building got renovated. So far, the available instruments for us were a piano, an electric bass, a flute, an ukulele, a triangle and a harmonica. Meg usually hogged the piano, while Georgie prefer flute, and I can play all of them.

Before I could offer him a place to sit, Lit stepped inside, pulling the door close and immediately started wandering to the closet where we kept the other instruments. The afternoon sunlight that filtered through a small window fell directly on his figure and I almost gave up on my conscience and start drooling if not for Meg tugging forcefully on my shirt.

"Hey, pay attention," she scolded me, pointing to her note sheet with her other hand. "How do I play this part?"

"Oh- uh, yeah," I stumbled over my words as I wrenched my head away to face her note sheet. For a few moments, I had quite forgotten about Lit since I was busy correcting my little student on her performance. For a stubborn, hard-headed, spoiler-allergic girl, Meg was improving really fast and I was sure she would master the melody I handed her in no time.

"Okay, that's enough for today. You did very good," I praised her. She scrunched her face with an unsatisfied expression and glared at her sheet as if the thing had personally insulted her. She had made a few mistakes throughout our last try and it seemed that she wanted to force me into an extra lesson, so I hurriedly assure her that we could address her mistakes in the next lesson instead of tackling everything today.

She huffed and crossed her short arms over her chest. "Fine. But you don't get to tell me about the song until I can play it perfectly," she said. I sighed tiredly, having to heard this multiple times already.

"Yes, I understand. Now go and take care of your plant collection or do your homeworks," I offered patiently. I was the first person that Meg had told about her abusive step-father, and I had tried my best to be as patient as I could ever since. So far, I proudly claimed myself as her honorary, most handsome big brother.

She grumbled out something about homework and Leo before hopped unelegantly to the floor from her chair and walked to the door with the stealth of an angry elephant.

"You asked for me to disturb if I come in on her lesson, but it seemed that you didn't actually want to get interrupted," Lit commented dryly after the little girl closed the door behind her back.

I looked at him and revelled at the sight of his distinctly-amused expression.

"I was mostly joking," I replied. "She's actually a very fast learner."

Lit grinned thinly. "Yes, I can see that. She plows through that sheet like a tractor."

I grinned back at him. In a positive way, Meg did resemble a mini-tractor with how she always plows through everything without fear.

"Well, speaking of, what do you want me to teach you with?" I asked as I stood up and came to his side in front of the instrument choices. I held myself back as to not unconsciously reach Lit's hand.

Lit tapped the glass window that showed the forementioned electric bass. "Can this work?" he asked me.

I chuckled. "Of course that can work! It's a quite long time since the last time I've played it, but I'm sure I'm still a decent bassist," I said as I opened the closet and took the bass out, recalling my short but famous career as a bassist in my highschool band.

Lit huffed. "I don't know a thing about music. Play as bad as you might, I'd probably thought it's good," he mused.

"That's fine. At least you know what's the differences between a cat's yowl and Beethoven's," I teased. I handed him the bass as I fumbled with its cable and cord. "I must say, good choice though. I'm glad you didn't pick the triangle-- ah-ha! There you go!" I exclaimed when I finally succeeded in connecting the bass to its electricity port. The instrument hummed lowly.

"If I want to play triangle, I wouldn't have ask for your help," Lit replied with an eyeroll. He handed me the bass back. I might or might not have purposely brushed our hands together when I took it, just so I would know what did it feel like. It didn't feel like an electric shock. that's for sure -- because that would have been painful rather than sweet. It actually felt like someone had shoved my hand near a blazing hearth -- and probably my face too, since it was also felt hot. Double curses.

"Apollo? Are you … okay?" Lit questioned, and I realized I had embarrassingly lost in my thoughts.

"Fine," I squeaked, then I cleared my throat before continuing, "just thinking."

"I've heard that's good for your health," Lit said with a tone so dry I couldn't say if he was serious or not. Based on the twitch of his face, he probably meant it as a joke, so I just rolled with it and shot him an exaggerated annoyed look.

"Alright," I said, "enough talking. Let's get your first lesson started. I'll show you how I play it first, then I'll explain how to do it."

Lit nodded. "Fine by me."

⇝♡⇜

When we finally got out of the music room, it was already dinner time. The others were already sitting at the dinner table, with the only exception being Lit and I.

I sat on an empty chair with Meg on my left and Lit on my right and I swore I saw Sssssara discreetly chucked something that suspiciously looked like money at Leo. I rolled my eyes. Stupid friends with stupid bet. They didn't even include me in it!

Jo and Emmie distributed the foods around the table and asked how was everybody's day went. I listened when Georgie told us about her day cheerfully while Meg not-so-stealthily transferred her vegetables to my plate. I would have been annoyed if this wasn't a daily experience.

Lit shrugged when it was his turn to tell, and blandly recall his day which actually quite the same as yesterday, and the day before, but I listened with rapt attention anyway. When he told the others about our bass lesson, I had to bear knowing looks from almost all of the people around the table.

Really, people? I know my handsome face is hard to resist but still, you were all creepy!

"So that's why Apollo forgot that todat is his turn to help me cook," Emmie commented with a scolding look. I winced. I had completely forgotten.

"Sorry," I offered meekly. "It won't happen again."

Emmie sighed, but at least she didn't glare at me anymore. "I hope not. But given the subject … well, try not to forget anyway," she said. I nodded in agreement.

At some point, Leo had dropped his spoon to the floor and slid under the table to retrieve it. Lit shuffled a little bit to the left so he wouldn't kick Leo on the head by accident, which meant his shoulder was pressed tight to mine since Meg refused to move even an inch. I was silently happy with that, but more knowing looks got thrown my way and I felt the urge to scream in frustration. Come on, guys, couldn't you let me pining over him in peace?

When we were all done eating, Emmie stopped me from retreating back to my room.

"Oh no, you don't. You get to wash the dishes tonight since you skipped on your task," she said.

"It was an accident!" I defended myself, which was probably not a good move. Fortunately, Emmie didn't skewer me with a fork or something alike. She just huffed and shoved me to the direction of the sink.

"Maybe, but you still have to do the dishes. And don't slack off, understood?" she pressed on, and then it was my turn to huff.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Now get going."

I went to the sink and got the tap water running over the stack of dishes. Usually, washing the dirty plates is a task meant for two people, but I was alone, so I thought my task-mate tonight was probably Sssssara or Leo, the latter possibly forgot about his job because he was busy with his collection of bolts and nuts. But my guess was proven wrong when a set of footsteps approached.

"Ah, Emmie got you to do the dishes, did she?" Lit asked as he popped right beside me, and I jumped backward in surprise. For a fighter, Lit was a quiet guy ever since Emmie let him live in the Waystation for as long as he wished to.

"I- yeah," I answered. "Wait, is today your turn?"

Lit nodded and took the drying rag from its hanger. "Mine and Calypso's, but since you're here, it's just both of us. You wash, I dry?" he asked, gesturing to the soapy sponge in my hand.

"Yup, okay."

We worked in silence for a few minutes, until Lit opened his mouth.

"I met up with my sister today," he said.

I hummed and handed him a plate. "Zoe, right? How is she?" I asked, remembering the name from when Lit had had a big argument with his father a few months ago right in front of the campus and the name Zoe had been thrown a few times. Apparently, Lit's sister ran away from their father's house first. I couldn't blame any of them, though. Their father was an ass, he and my father would either get along pretty great or try to kill each other if they ever meet.

"She's good. We're good. I figured out she's been hanging out often with your sister and she looks happy. Although she's still being a chatterbox."

I snorted. No surprise here, because of course a teenage girl who ran away from her house would be found at my sister's side. She had a knack to pull every teenage girl with potential into her art and dance studio. She gave them food and shelter, which was probably way better than something I could have done.

"Artemis probably already has your sister to sworn off men," I joked. It was a running joke between Artemis and I that she would never have relations with men and collected girls with the same brainwave. For a set of twins, she and I were quite different about romantic subject, and she often joked that I had stolen her romantic side when we were still babies. Honestly, I kind of agree with her.

Lit smirked. "That's a good possibility. If she has a boyfriend, she would talk my ears off about him. I'm not looking toward that," he said. Then he frowned at the cup in his hand and huffed. "And now I got distracted. That's not what I want to ask you."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Well, ask away," I said.

"I'll go visit Zoe at your sister's place this weekend after lunch. Do you want to go with me?" he asked, giving me his trademarked sideway glance.

I blinked once, then twice. Okay, then. That was not what I expecting for him to ask. "Sure. For lunch or to my sister's studio?" I asked, just to be sure.

"Both, if you don't mind."

"No, of course not," I assured, then after a few seconds of brainstorming, I scrunched my face up. I didn't know why I did it, maybe I had a sudden burst of extra confidence or something, but I asked him, "wait, will that be a date?"

Oh, my not-so-innocent past-self, you were so embarrassing and stupid! How could you just blurt that out? Couldn't you just like, keep your cool and be subtle? Gods, you're awful.

Lit, for the first time today, fully faced me with an unreadable expression, like he was levelling me for a fight. After a second, his facade broke and a small smirk stretched over his face.

"If you want it to be, okay," he replied easily, and I felt myself broke into a wide grin. "Does this have something to do with my good-looking face?"

"Part of it," I said, half-joking. "Mostly it has something to do with your delightful personality."

Lit rested both hands on the edge of the sink, his dark eyes still trained on me. "Well then, right back at you," he said with a crooked but genuine smile. It was probably exaggerating, but I felt warm just staring at him. Was it possible that I caught a case of weird fever?

"You should smile more often," I finally complained, dishes completely forgotten. Lit's smile widened just a fraction, and my heart flipped when I smiled back.

"Then you should be near me more often," he pointed out smoothly, and I was torn between blushing and laughing. But before I could respond, we both flinched in surprise when Leo yelled not far from the kitchen.

"Guys! Meg and Jo win the bet!" he shouted, followed with a cheer from the other rooms, then the scrawny teenager popped his head from behind the wall to scowl at us. "You two can't hold it until next month, can you? Now it's your fault that I have to pay to the kid!"

Lit stared at me with bewilderment and I didn't blame him. Since Leo had accidentally let out to me that the bet was on, Lit was the only one left without knowing. But he didn't look upset. Instead, he ducked his head, and huffed out a laugh. As in love with him as I might be, I couldn't describe the laugh like a chime of a bell. No, it was hoarse, deep and harsh-sounding, as if he had a bad case of sore throat. I wanted to hear more of it nonetheless.

I heard my own laughter mixed with his and for once, I felt better than I had ever felt before. I was really looking toward this weekend.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I ship yet another rare pairing
> 
> I was an idiot because I though today is Apollo's birthday when I remembered that this is August. Oh, well, me and my non-elephant memory
> 
> Anw, I was very torn between making Apollo with medical major or a drama one. But since he is a dramatic b*tch in this one, I ended up picking drama
> 
> Shout out to my KnY fans friends, no, I'm not abandoning any of my SabiSane fanfic. Just ... stay tune, I guess. I'll update it, just don't know when
> 
> Have a nice day, everyone!


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